I received my Mauser M-48 last week and bought a scope mount and rings for it. I may be a newbie, but I learned fast that you need to pull the rear sight off and put this mount in place, then you put your scope on. Simple enough....except....the rear sight is ahead of the bolt and you need a long eye relief scope -- 12 - 14 inches. This limits my options. The mount I have is Mitchell's -- it's a Weaver rail with weaver rings.

Now...the Mauser in question is a premium grade rifle from Mitchell -- matching serial numbers, teak stock -- the whole works -- I really don't want to drill and tap this -- it's too beautiful a weapon. It will mainly be a range queen and I'll also occasionally use it for hunting. The range I shoot on is good to 300 yards. If I can find one where I can shoot further, I will.

If I go with the scout scope, Mauser sells a 2.5 - 7x variable. I'm not sure if a scout setup is suitable for what I'm doing. Again, I'd like to fool around with longer range shooting -- some guy on YouTube shot his K98 out to 900 yards with a 15x scope -- but he drilled and tapped his.

Question is -- is there a rail that I can affix to this mount that would essentially cantilever back towards me -- so that I can mount a regular scope? If it does exist, is it worth doing/reliable, or should I just get the scout scope and be done with it?

Both Mitchell's Mausers and the FFL who I picked it up from don't like the idea of drilling and tapping -- and for this rifle -- neither do I.

I know i would not drill and tap a quality Mauser. I've got several Mauser and enjoy firing them all. I bought a scope rail a few years ago out of Shotgun news. Don't remember the company name, but they build great equipment. The scope rail is mounted in place of the rear sights. So you don't have to alter your rifle. This rail is about 8" long and is a weaver rail, and rock solid. I thank I paid $125.00 for it. I don't like the scout as it's just not what I need.

I'm going to get one of the two. Don't know which. The Iron Elite is solid -- one piece. The other one is both scout and regular. You cantilever the base off the scout mount, which means the scope is a bit higher too.

I agree. Absolutely no drilling/tapping/gunsmithing. These mounts I'm referencing above do not deface the rifle. You pull the rear sight ladder off, by removing some screws, and put one of these mounts in its place. The rifle retains its value, because you're not doing anything permanent to it. If I ever wanted to sell, I could pull this mount off and put the rear sight back on.

Mine is a shooter -- not a beater -- but a shooter, so it's not going to be just locked away -- I didn't get it for that -- I got it to use -- but I'm going to use it respectfully. ;-)

I went with the accumount -- the one that's both scout and regular. Now, I can mount a scope in peace. ;-)

I'd still be worried that the mount would mar the finish on the rear sight block, or even worse break it as it was never intended to receive that much stress of having a heavy scope on it. I also wonder how well it would hold a zero with even mild handling such as when hunting. Its getting kind of late in the year for the good buys, but usually around jan-feb you can pick up used hunting rifles cheaper than any other time of the year because dealers don't want to sit on them for 9 more months and people who over spent on the holidays need some $. I got a like new remington 78 (field grade 700ADL) 30-06 for around $180 out the door that way a few years ago. I'd go the used hunting rifle route before putting an aftermarket scope mount on a mauser.